Step 2 Complete: Level Up!

Which Hosting Type Do I Need?

Which Hosting Type Do I Need?

Shared Hosting

  • Amazing for websites up to 30k+ visitors per month

  • Very economical (as low as $1 per month)

  • Very simple to use and set up

  • Usually has unlimited bandwidth

Dedicated Hosting

  • Great for websites of mostly any size (300k+ visitors per month)
  • Can be expensive (starting at about $75 per month )
  • Simple to set up and use
  • A HUGE amount of processing power
  • Very secure
  • Dedicated IP (usually three or four IPs are included)

VPS

  • Good for small to large websites (any number of visitors per month )

  • Price scales with your website (starting at $15 per month)

  • Can be complex to set up if you're not a web developer or programmer

  • Dedicated IP

  • Scalable
  • You can get exactly the amount of processing, RAM, and hard drive space you need

Types of Hosting

The three types of hosting that are generally available are: Shared, Dedicated, and Virtual Private Servers (VPS). These three options combine to cover small, medium, and large websites. Usually, a website size can be determined by the number of monthly visitors. Don’t be afraid to fall in the small section, as 99.9 percent of websites are considered small and it is significantly cheaper! Different Types of Web Hosting

1. Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is by far the most common option for small businesses, individuals, and even some popular websites. Shared hosting is many websites hosting on a single server (remember server just means computer). The advantage to using shared hosting is it makes it extremely cheap because of the shared resources (see pricing).

Shared hosts can handle websites that run WordPress, Joomla, or others and also make this process very easy to set up. A shared host can handle up to 30,000 visitors per month, which covers most websites. If you are just getting started with hosting, you should take a close look at shared hosting for its value and performance.

2. Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting consists of a single server that hosts a single website. The perk to having a dedicated server is that the entire computer is focused on giving your website the best possible performance. While dedicated hosting can be somewhat expensive (see pricing), it is worth the cost if your website demands very fast page-load times, a dedicated IP, and the means to handle a lot of traffic, like upwards of 100,000 visitors per month.

3. VPS Hosting (Cloud)

VPS hosting is the most difficult to describe out of the three types of hosting. First, VPS stands for "Virtual Private Server." Basically, a VPS has a huge amount of computing resources you can purchase a portion of for a price. Imagine a computer with thousands of processors, terabytes of RAM, and unlimited hard drive space. For a monthly price, you can reserve as much of that computer as you need (see pricing).

What is really happening is hundreds of computers are networked together and appear as a single resource. The advantage of VPS hosting is you can scale from small to large websites without having to switch servers. Also, with a VPS you have a huge number of options as far as software and hardware go, and you usually pay by the hour instead of having a monthly fee. VPS hosting is good for the more technically inclined and usually caters to programmers and web designers.

What's My First Step?

The first step to getting hosting is to choose the type of hosting you need. Sounds easy enough, right? In reality, there are several things you must know before you start that process. In the following slides, we'll be covering the three main types of hosting available:
  • Shared Hosting
  • Dedicated Hosting
  • VPS Hosting
One of these should be sufficient for any size of website you are interested in hosting. Usually, it will be pretty clear to you which one you will need. We'll cover examples of the types of sites that use all three. Click below to read on... (do it!)